Organizing Solutions for People with ADHD, 2nd Edition-Revised and Updated: Tips and Tools to Help You Take Charge of Your Life and Get Organized

I have ADHD and have been rather hopelessly disorganized all my life despite the dozen or so books I have bought (and read) on the subject. This book has quite literally changed my life. I understand it, and Mrs. Pinsky understands ME. I now understand why the other books weren't effective for me, and why a few things I had tried (over-the-door hooks) worked amazingly well. This is not one of those books where you are supposed to spend a ton of money on organizing doo-dads to make all your stuff fit better; the first thing she recommends is that you throw a lot of it away. A whole lot of it. It is much easier to organize your stuff if there isn't much of it. Why didn't I think of that? The organizing tools she recommends are a hammer and nails and inexpensive bins you can buy nearly anywhere. The advice is brilliant- and you have probably never heard this advice before either- I certainly hadn't. I nearly cried with joy when I read the advice about the socks. My non-ADD mom has never understood my loathing of sock sorting and laundry in general. I modified the advice to fit our situation of course- oldest son has crew socks and batman underwear, youngest son has taller socks and ironman underwear. Sounds simple but it has made laundry sorting much more bearable at my house. The advice about the paperwork basket- can I tell you how brilliant this is? Not only do I have a clean desk because I am not afraid to trash the one important thing in the avalanche of papers my kids come home from school with; when I DO realize if have trashed something in error (like this morning) I can get it back. Ingenious- or actually common sense. Why didn't I think of this?? I fortunately found this book when we were in the planning stages of building a house- I actually altered a few things in the house plan to accomodate the ideas in this book. I also threw out an unbelievable amount of stuff. Truckloads. I know the ladies at the local thrift store by name thanks to the nearly daily trips I made donating stuff. Moving day was a much more pleasant experience after throwing out probably a third of the things we own- things we didn't even need. And guess what? I can find all of my stuff. It all fits in the drawers and cabinets- In fact, I have EMPTY drawers and cabinets. It is a piece of cake to put my things away. I no longer buy things that I think I might be out of, I know exactly what I am out of because I can see it all. I even shop differently now. After throwing out so much stuff, I am much more careful about what I do buy- I consider whether I need the item or whether it will just become clutter and need to be tossed the next time I purge. Was it hard? Sort of. It was sometimes hard to throw away expensive items that I just didn't want or need, but after I got past the guilt it was a actually fun! I now know that I can find everything in my kitchen, the lid to every tupperware container, and every single item in my closet fits and looks great- how awesome is that? Someone came to see my new house the other day and said "wow- you are so organized!" For a minute I thought they were being ironic, because no one had EVER said anything like that to me before- but my house actually IS organized now! I find myself losing things less frequently, and when I do lose them, finding them more quickly because there aren't random piles of stuff everywhere with no home. Thank you, Thank you, Thank you Ms. Pinsky for writing this book! I do think this book would be helpful for people without ADD, and everyone with kids, but for many people with ADD, this will be nothing short of a miracle. It is NOT much different from the 2006 book though, so if you already have that one no need to re-buy.

I'm not a big book reviewer, but this was one that I needed to comment on... Theory is nice, but I'm tired of wasting my time reading literally dozens of books over the past 15 months that explain why I'm like I am (I have ADHD) but that don't provide practical, actionable things that I can do to get around my ADHD roadblocks. This one of the two books that I keep referring back to (the other is Your Life Can Be Better, using strategies for ADD/ADHD by Douglas Puryear--just one tip in Puryear's book has saved me about 100 hours this year). And, as I said, Pinsky's is the ONLY useful book I've read about how to handle paperwork & office organization, which is the bane of my existence. For a year I went with an intermediate version of her "filing" strategy and put my paperwork in monthly folders. I was just afraid that I'd lose something, as I always had in the past. I've since gone with the basket strategy, and it's working just fine. Try it--come over to the Dark Side...you'll never go back to (not) filing/stacking your papers everywhere because you are loathe to file them, again! No, the author doesn't have ADHD, but she totally gets us. I've implemented many of her suggestions, and I keep referring back to the book and implementing more. It's almost too much to digest at once. (Puryear's book is like that, too.) Yes, she tells us to toss a lot of crap, but when you think about it, we really need to anyhow. Purging really helps with clutter, distractions & the stress caused by all of our "stuff." She has some of the most useful tips for those of us suffering from ADD/ADHD that I've read. I can't say enough good things about this book.

I've now bought this book twice - one physical copy and one kindle copy - and I frequently refer to both. It has become THAT indispensable. Pinsky begins the book by demonstrating her understanding of ADHDers' difficulties using traditional organizational methods. And the book has a conversational, easy-to-read tone of voice and uses strategically-placed boldfacing & yellow post-it note style callouts to make the main points stand out. The book shows right away that it was created with ADHD in mind. The book primarily focuses on an organizational philosophy of easy implementation & easy upkeep. The content may mostly be specific solutions, but the solutions aren't the POINT of the book. They're just demonstrative examples, and many of them are good ideas that I hadn't thought of, or had written off as ugly or just too guilt-inducing. Not only does Pinsky prioritize efficiency, but she basically defines efficiency as "what works for you already" rather than "the most efficient system as long as you do it correctly" the way some books do. Most of the organizational solutions she presents are intended to blend in with the way we already move naturally through our day (the book gets 4 stars instead of 5 because of a few small lapses of judgment where she seems to forget this), while most books and systems demand the creation of new habits. This book isn't about beautifying your home or rearranging your life. It's about maximizing the USABILITY of your home by making everything easy to find and - most vitally - easy to put away. Because rearranging your house and upending your life & schedule is just not sustainable, as many of us with ADHD know. She does include some seemingly-counterintuitive tips - like reducing your number of tupperware containers to JUST enough for each member of the family - in order to force some new habits (this, for instance, would keep you from neglecting leftovers & force you to do dishes more often). She understands that will power won't make these habits happen, we have to make it easier to stumble into these habits than to do anything else. It's true, however, that not every solution in the book will work for everyone. Certainly not every solution presented worked for me (I could NEVER get rid of my CDs) but for me it did such a good job of explaining its philosophy of efficiency that I was able to reframe the general overarching lessons into the context of my life, my stuff, and my priorities. If you read this with the idea of "I won't necessarily take the SOLUTIONS literally, but I'll use them as a way to understand the PHILOSOPHY," then that's how you'll get the most out of it. My mother has teased my inability to put lids back on containers for pretty much my entire life, and this book suggests open-top, lowered-front bins so I can literally just toss things into them from across the room. Once you come across a solution like that, one that speaks to you personally, you know you've found YOUR organization book. And even with its imperfections, for me, nothing has come close to the usefulness of this one.

Unlike many books about organizing for ADD, this is actually useful. The book advocates for ruthless efficiency, judicious minimalism, and extreme practicality. In essence her philosophy is that you should make putting things away (and correspondingly getting at things) as easy as possible. Minimize the amount of stuff you own, make things visible, and eliminate as many steps as possible for any organizational task to lower the barriers to actually doing it. She has a lot of helpful tips for specific storage/organizational solutions depending on what you’re dealing with, and the sections are organized by room (kitchen, bedroom, living room, etc) so you can skip around if you want. A lot of her tips are helpful, but I think they are most useful as case studies in how to apply the philosophy. She talks through how she eliminates the problematic extra steps from each process she’s trying to optimize, and that helped me see how to eliminate extra steps from my own processes. Things I liked about this book: - it was a quick read - actually helpful advice that is easy to extend/modify for your needs - wasn’t shaming or pitying ADD folks Things that could be better about this book: - a lot of references to traditional gender roles (all your daughters like makeup, all your sons play sports) - she seems to assume you live in the suburbs and have tons of space (offices! basements! plentiful kitchen cabinetry!) - some of her advice is for weird situations that I don’t understand (who keeps a ton of papers in their kitchen?) or is strangely dated (landlines, physical address books, people who’ve never heard of paperless billing and autopay) - some of her advice assumes a certain level of financial affluence (toss/donate things and replace them with more efficient alternatives, buy a tv for every room, hire people to clean or do landscaping, never buy in bulk) All in all, even with some drawbacks, this was a useful book, and it gives me hope that I can achieve a higher level of domestic success, even with my ADD brain, small space, and lack of spare time/energy.

Book is alright, but it's dated (despite the updates) regarding technology, has MANY cringey and entirely unnecessary instances of gender-stereotyping, and I think it could be condensed into a list of valuable highlights like the "rules of organizing" from the book that are shared in the product information here. What's good about it: It does contain some wise advice that could make a big difference for a person who follows it. Regarding the Rules of Organization above, I especially like rules 1, 2, 4, and 6. Another gem is her saying (and here I'm paraphrasing because I got rid of the book) something like "protect your rough storage spaces" (like shelves in the garage), "for their value is above that of rubies." So is promoting open storage like shelves, saying you shouldn't have to remove one thing to get to another (so, like, in your kitchen cabinets, you can stack identical plates put avoid large plates with medium plates on top and bowls on top of that). Sadly, I think many people fail at organization rule #1 and that that's a problem with a ton of people's households, ADHD or not. They keep trying to clean and organize tons of stuff rather than having less stuff! But while I'm talking about that rule... It might be worth noting that that's hardly the author's unique take. I see that in probably literally every single blog/article/post about organizing your home. But in other respects, her advice is unique, and of course her familiarity with ADHD gives her some valuable insights. The advice that's dated: I can't remember all of it, but the standout one to me is her saying you should aim to save only TEN PHOTOS A YEAR. I'm sorry but that's crazy. I get that digital clutter is a thing, but as a person with tens of thousands of highly organized photos that are really important to me, I was like "WHAT?" Of course I can just say "well, that advice isn't for me and that's fine," but I'm pretty sure ALL of us want more than ten photos. That said, her criteria for narrowing down your photos could be useful to some, and one could adjust her "ten a year" rule to something like "for most people, photos from a social event such as a birthday party should be reduced to as few as 1-5 of the most representative photos" and/or a rule like "Select the best photo out of multiple photos with a given person and delete the rest". So if you haven't seen Cousin Tom in forever, of course you don't want to delete the selfie with him, but you don't need six." I believe there was also advice about CDs as well (!!!). It just doesn't seem like the tech part is at all her forte. It also seems difficult to fit into a book mostly about shelves and drawers. Digital clutter is a topic that merits its own book even if SOME portion of the advice about physical stuff is also applicable to digital stuff (like "reduce inventory"). And then there's the advice that's dated because of those gender stereotypes. And look, I'm a woman who's more open-minded than most when it comes to that. As in I actually am more accepting of the stereotyping than I'm "supposed to be" in 2025, I mean, because let's be honest: Lots of times, heterosexual couples' household roles DO fall into the expected division between husband and wife. That said, the stereotyping was quite cringy at times, and ALWAYS 100% unnecessary. I wish I still had the book so I could give a few examples, but if you read the book, you'll see them, and they're quite glaring. And they're always so unnecessary! It's things like (I'm going by memory here), "Is your husband's tool bench in the garage a mess?" It would have been so easy to instead say "Is the tool bench in the garage a mess?" There also were ones, I believe, like "are you always nagging your husband about X?" Oh! And I guess the biggest unnecessary instance of gender-stereotyping, perhaps, is her 100% assuming that the reader is a woman and wife (with kids). Because she uses the term "your husband" again and again. Does it mean her book is terrible and that she should be attacked for it? No. But I guarantee you that that's jarring and obnoxious to a male reader, as well as to female readers like me. Anyway... All in all, a decent book, and I love the ADHD perspective. But as is the case with so many self-help books, all you really need are the highlights, a lot of it is obvious, and a lot of it won't apply to you. If you do buy it, I suggest that you make your own list of the top ten rules or insights and save it and review it from time to time or even hang it on a wall. The good bits are REALLY good, and ought to REALLY commit to acting on them.

**Apparently I wrote this review eight years ago. I just went to buy the book again and saw the review I left, which I rarely do. It is 1000% accurate. All I would add is forget the ADHD part-this is useful for almost anybody: Two words: specific tips. If you want to read about ADHD and why you might have it and how it's treated and the ways it can impact your life and the nature of the disorder, there are a million books about that. This touches on those things, specifically how ADHD affects people, but it's followed up by "that's why you should use hooks or open front baskets or always keep (some item) in (this location). This is almost like a (really interesting) manual with specific instructions on how to make simple changes that will make your life easier. It's incredibly easy to navigate and find what you're looking for. Some of her solutions seem over-the-top intense/ruthless in terms of purging your stuff or changing your habits, but others are absolutely brilliant. And everybody has different areas that they need or don't need help with. So I read some of the suggestions and said no way, that's not for me, but plenty of her other tips immediately helped me in areas I desperately needed. Everyone should read this (or the parts that apply to them), regardless of whether or not they have ADHD. The first chapter has a number of ideas that are broader and perfect for anyone. Buy only things for which you have an imminent need (as opposed to oh I could use that at some point in the future); spend less money on stuff and more on services (don't spend $1,000 on a garage organizing system if you're never going to use it; pay the kid down the street 20 bucks instead to help you do your yardwork). Those are pretty weak examples; there are a million ways in here to make your life easier.

This book is designed to help parents of a child with Attention Deficit Disorder or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder as these individuals have difficulty being organized and do best without clutter and with some structure. This is a fantastic book. It’s beautifully designed with many illustrations and pictures to help you understand what is proposed. Susan Pinsky has clever ideas that will help the ADD person be able to keep his or her stuff in order. Each room in the house has a chapter, even the bathroom and the laundry room. She also includes a chapter on calendars and scheduling, storage spaces, and packing and moving. She cuts down the steps that are needed to do most clean up chores thus simplifying life for everyone in the house. For example she suggests every child over eight can do their own laundry one day a week. Give them their own laundry basket and even their towel can be washed in one load by them and then returned to their room with no sorting of clothing of other family members. Sheets can all be done in one day and returned to the bed without folding. I am a very organized person but I have trouble letting go of stuff. This book has helped me purge in a big way, helping me be better organized than ever The information here is invaluable even if you only use a few of Pinsky’s ideas. Parents with an ADD child will find it especially helpful.

As an adult with ADHD and the mother of a son with ADHD, I have found this book to be invaluable. The tips make sense and are doable. The content is organized well, specifically for so done with ADHD. I love that Susan is a professional organizer and the mom of a child with ADHD, so she really understand the day-to-day struggles of someone who lives with ADHD. The only advice I did not take 100% was the purging. Susan advocates for paring down belongings to the bare minimum. While I wholeheartedly agree that the less you have, the easier it is to organize, it's not possible to have 10 outfits only. As a working professional, I need to have for than that! I took many of these ideas and implemented them throughout the house. My 11 year-old son's room has seen the biggest changes. I love the idea of zones, and created him a homework zone with a desk and balancing ball for a chair. I also created him a space under his desk because sometimes he likes to work on the floor. I put down an area rug, got a comfy pillow, and a clip-on light. He loves to be in small spaces, so this is perfect for him. Susan recommends letting kids have input, so we worked on this together. We talked about eliminating distractions and what type of environment would be best for him, and created it together. His involvement in the process has made him much more likely to use the space and keep it clean.

Students and bachelors living alone, 'always on the move' people, single parents, especially artists, writers, bipolars and people dealing with seasonal depression should read this book. It's really going to solve more than half of their daily struggles with arranging and organizing things.

I love the no nonsense approach to managing a household with ADHD. Tackling room by room, the author clearly shows how much she knows about this problem, and suggests solutions that actually resonate with me as I struggle to stay on top of my clutter. The biggest point is that everything must be visible or it won’t work. This was a lightbulb moment for me, and one that I will benefit from as I reorganise my home.

As an adult with newly diagnosed ADHD, this book feels like it was written for me. I have always struggled with a messy home and disorganized life. I hated myself for it and it would only be the pressure of having guests over that would force me to spend 1-2 days cleaning like crazy to make my house presentable. These tips have already helped so much. There are things mentioned in this book that I didn’t even realize I was doing that we’re making my life more difficult. The book is laid out in an easy to read way and is straight to the point. The author doesn’t make you feel guilty or ashamed, but instead encourages you to understand how your mind works and use it to your advantage. I finally feel understood and have a strategy to improve my life. Would recommend to anyone struggling with ADHD or anyone with a partner/family member with ADHD to better understand how to help them succeed.

Hat mir sehr gut gefallen. Ich hab einiges zuhause verändert nach dem ich das Buch gelesen hab. Grundregel: Was Du am häufigsten brauchst sollte am einfachsten erreichbar sein. Folglich ist meine Kleidung jetzt in 4 Regalfächern platziert, auf die ich auf der Bettkante sitzend mit nur einem Griff zugreifen kann. Das spart jeden Tag einen Haufen Zeit und Willenskraft. Was mir noch geholfen hat: jedes Teil das Stauraum wegnimmt ist teuer. Wenn es 1 Jahr nicht gebraucht wurde ist es in Verhältnis zu seinem Nutzen wahrscheinlich zu teuer und gehört weggeschmissen. Ich hab angestossen durch das Buch einiges an altem Zeug weggehauen. Fazit: Lesen lohnt. Im Buch sind viele gute Ideen die mich inspiriert haben.

A really useful book that has helped me organise my flat and keep it organised.. Mostly! Chapters come with a tl;dr and the writing is simple and uncomplicated. I would really recommend this and I think it could also help people who are neurotypical and bad at tidying.